Table 1.

Epidemiologic parameters: the blood lead level (PbB), zinc protoporphyrin concentration in blood (ZPP) and concentrations of iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), copper (Cu) and selenium (Se) in plasma as well as caeruloplasmin (CER), transferrin (TRF) and haptoglobin (HPG) serum levels in the study population (LE—the low exposure group, ME—the medium exposure group, HE—the high exposure group)

	Control group		LE group			ME group			HE group			ANOVA
	Mean	SD	Mean	SD	p value	Mean	SD	p value	Mean	SD	p value	p value
Age	41.5	9.23	37.2	8.80	0.007	43.0	10.2	0.382	43.9	7.53	0.102	0.100
Years of work			13.0	9.61		19.3	9.75		19.2	9.45		0.001
BMI (kg/m2)	26.2	3.05	26.7	3.46	0.382	26.6	3.92	0.459	27.2	3.69	0.069	0.098
Smokers (%)	47 %		45 %		0.829	49 %		0.753	62 %		0.060	0.270
PbBmean (μg/dl)	6.45	2.49	34.1	5.39	<0.001	43.4	2.35	<0.001	49.7	4.10	<0.001	<0.001
PbB (μg/dl)	6.39	2.47	37.8	10.0	<0.001	47.9	6.75	<0.001	49.8	5.98	<0.001	<0.001
ZPPmean (μg/g Hb)	1.93	0.47	6.03	3.07	<0.001	8.15	4.13	<0.001	10.2	2.41	<0.001	<0.001
ZPP (μg/g Hb)	1.96	0.51	6.68	3.73	<0.001	8.72	5.06	<0.001	10.2	3.10	<0.001	<0.001
Fe (μmol/l)	102	45.8	96.4	35.2	0.418	104	43.0	0.843	106	46.5	0.646	0.804
Se (μg/dl)	80.6	15.0	61.1	13.3	<0.001	63.3	9.83	<0.001	69.7	15.6	0.010	<0.001
Cu (μg/dl)	69.1	8.48	77.3	13.9	0.003	78.5	16.4	0.002	77.4	14.2	0.004	0.028
Zn (μg/dl)	70.4	11.2	75.5	12.9	0.071	74.5	10.4	0.085	72.2	12.2	0.497	0.029
CER (mg/dl)	36.6	12.4	45.0	8.64	<0.001	43.1	11.6	0.003	42.5	10.1	0.003	<0.001
HPG (mg/dl)	117	51.8	153	63.2	0.002	132	58.2	0.212	130	48.4	0.211	0.062
TRF (mg/dl)	253	33.7	269	42.8	0.074	264	47.3	0.235	257	42.3	0.588	0.469